Interview with Dr Paul S Hamilton of Reptile and Amphibian Ecology International

Earlier this week, I completed an interview with herpetologist and rainforest explorer Dr Paul S. Hamilton of Reptile and Amphibian Ecology International (RAEI).

RAEI is a non-profit organisation that accepts volunteers and interns for scientific expeditions in the rainforests of Ecuador and runs various wildlife photography courses in the Amazon rainforest. Their website is www.reptilesandamphibians.org/ . RAEI has been in the news a lot lately because of this press release , which talks about new species they discovered on a recent trip to Ecuador. 30 new species of frog and a new snake species, to be precise.

Dr Hamilton told me about these new rain frogs and snail-eating snake that were discovered on his most recent trip to the Amazon, Ecuador's exceptional biodiversity and about RAEI's new study area- the Rio Bigal Biological Reserve- in the North West of the country.

I am happy to say that the interview is due to go on sale in the UK in Practical Reptile Keeping magazine in the next couple of days.

As usual for Practical Reptile Keeping, in the UK, you can get a copy in J. S. Sainsbury's supermarkets, W.H. Smiths and high street newsagents. International subscriptions are available from [here].

Link of the day- Greg du Toit photographs lions, bustards, waterbuck and zebras

Link of the day today is this article and its gallery of 11 stunning photographs of watering-hole wildlife-

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2870439/Snapper-lies-in-wait-for-animals.html

The photographer is South African wildlife photographer Greg du Toit, who spent 3 months submerged in a watering hole to catch photographs of lioneeses drinking, managing to catch malaria, bilharzia and a number of other horrible diseases and parasties in the process...

Prehistoric filter-feeders- link of the day

Today's link is to this science story-
http://news.discovery.com/animals/giant-fish-filter-feeders.html
- an article by Jennifer Viegas about new research on prehistoric fish fossils. Specifically, a study by Matt Friedman, Kenshu Shimada and collegaues, reporting the discovery of giant filter-feeding fish (the size of SUVs) from the mesozoic era.

Thanks to Dolev for the tip-off.

Science update- new strategy for combatting AIDS spread

One of the big science news stories of the week is this-
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100222/thl-aids-could-be-beaten-in-40-years-d831572.html
- story: a proposal by South African AIDS expert Professor Brian Williams to combat the spread of HIV by mass screening and treatment of those infected with anti-retroviral drugs with the aim of preventing further spread of the virus (and the side effect of giving those treated longer life expectancies, rather than the other way around). According to the article above, it is estimated that spread of the virus could be halted by 2015 using this method and that the eventual deaths of those infected would mean that AIDS effectively died out by 2050....

Link of the day- Poisonous plants

Link of the day today is this article- http://news.uk.msn.com/environment/wildlife/photos.aspx?cp-documentid=152183472&ocid=ukhotmailhttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5149687252890209715 on poisonous plants. It was run on 16th February on a (belated) valentine's day pretext, but is really just an excuse to talk about plant toxins...

Link of the day-Panda diets

Link of the day today is this popular science article by Heidi Jeter on giant pandas- what they eat and, more importantly, research on why they don't eat-
http://ezinearticles.com/?Zoo-Professional-Discovers-Dietary-Trends-in-Giant-Pandas&id=3461637

Image of the day- Squirrel shelters from the snow

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2Mf7oO/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/7187689/Pictures-of-the-day-8-February-2010.html%3Fimage%3D1

with thanks to Stumbleupon.com for the tip-off